


Namimori Vale

by damedanbo



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Gen, Trapped in a video game, Video & Computer Games, Video Game Mechanics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-10 12:28:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19905721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/damedanbo/pseuds/damedanbo
Summary: When Reborn traps them in a farming simulator, the boys must figure out how to escape and return to reality. Winning the game will send them home, but how do you win a farm sim?Marry the mayor's daughter, of course.





	1. Chapter 1

It was the first day of spring, officially. It would be a week or so more before the cherry blossoms began to bloom, but the world was starting to look green again after the long winter. It had rained that morning, leaving the grass damp and cold, but it was warm inside the school, and the sun was shining for now. School was almost over, and since their sensei was out sick for last period, class 2-C had been left to their own devices for the rest of the lesson. The more responsible students were studying, working on their day’s homework in the free period. Not everyone was so studious.

“What kind of game is it?” Gokudera Hayato asked, leaning forward over his desk to watch. Sawada Tsunayoshi, the Vongola family’s tenth boss, had just booted up his handheld game system. A name flashed across the screen, in blocky hiragana:

MIDORI VALE

“It’s a farming sim,” Tsuna said, turning to show Gokudera the screen. “You inherit a farm from your aunt, and you have to make money and become successful and marry a villager.”

“So it’s a simulator,” Gokudera murmured, watching carefully as Tsuna started up his farm. He was on year 3 in-game, and his farm was massive. Animals roamed about, crops grew tall, and the house was practically a mansion. 

“Hey, baseball idiot,” Gokudera said, turning around to an empty desk. Oh, right. He’d gone home sick. The cold going around sure had wiped a lot of people out. “Who needs him,” Gokudera said cheerfully, turning to watch again as Tsuna watered his crops.

A couple of in-game days passed during the final class period. Gokudera and Tsuna stayed stock still, except for Tsuna’s thumbs on the d-pad and action buttons. Around them, the bell rang and their classmates began to pack up and leave, chattering with each other. Someone bumped into Gokudera, leaned into the aisle as he was, and he murmured a string of curses at them, watching Tsuna fight slime monsters in the dungeon. The room fell silent around them, aside from the sounds of cleaning as the two on-duty students got to work on the classroom.

Soon even they’d left, and the only noises were from the sports teams practicing outside. The door opened- a prefect stuck his head inside, then quickly closed it. Neither of the two boys looked up- until the door slammed into its slot, and Hibari Kyouya stepped into the classroom. He approached, and Tsuna instinctively hid his game in his lap.

“Don’t bother, Sawada Tsunayoshi,” Hibari said. “I already saw it. Video games and other electronics are a violation of the rules.” 

“Who invited you?” Gokudera asked, standing and stepping around Tsuna’s desk to stare Hibari down. “School’s over. He can do what he wants.”

“I’m not talking to you,” Hibari said, shoving Gokudera aside. “Hand it over,” he directed to Tsuna. Tsuna sighed.

“Can I at least save..?”

“No,” Hibari said with a sneer.

“That’s not fair!” Gokudera yelled, straightening up and grabbing his dynamite from underneath his uniform shirt. “At least let a man save his game before you go stealing it!”

“It’s funnier if I don’t,” Hibari said, shoving him away again.

Tsuna reluctantly handed the game system over. Hibari reached out to take it. He frowned, trying to pry the system from Tsuna’s hands.

“Let go.”

“I’m trying…”

With some struggle, Hibari got the game away from him, and snapped the screen closed. “Don’t bring distractions to school again,” he warned, pocketing the device, “or I’ll bite you to death.” 

Gokudera mouthed the prefect’s catchphrase along with him mockingly. Hibari grabbed up his tonfa without even looking his way and turned to deck him in the face.

“Bastard!” Gokudera hollered, stumbling back to light a cigarette- and used that to light his dynamites. “You could have hurt the tenth!”

“So?” Hibari said, following with his tonfa. 

“So apologize!” Gokudera yelled, slinging his bombs at the Cloud guardian.

“Aren’t you putting him in more danger, throwing those things about?” Hibari said, smirking at him. Gokudera gasped, dropping his unlit bombs, and rushed forward to start putting out the fuses.

“Gokudera-kun, Hibari-san…” Tsuna tried half-heartedly to step between the prefect and the Storm guardian, pinching the lit fuses and hissing at the burns to his fingertips. “You guys shouldn’t fight.”

“Shut up,” Hibari said, physically moving him aside.

“Don’t touch the tenth!” Gokudera hollered, without looking up from his work. “I’ll kill you!”

“Oh, scary,” Hibari laughed. “Come on then.”

“Name the time and place!” Gokudera yelled over his shoulder.

“Here and now, stupid.”

“Hibari-san, stop it,” Tsuna said, putting a hand out to hold him back. Hibari swatted the hand away from his chest, glaring.

“Don’t worry tenth!” Gokudera said, leaping to his feet triumphantly. “I’ll kick his ass for you.”

“There’s no need for that!” Tsuna cried, putting his other hand out to hold Gokudera back. “Look, let’s just go home, okay?” he pleaded, pushing Gokudera towards the door. “Let’s just give up.”

“Wha- give up?!”

“I’m not letting you leave,” Hibari said haughtily. “You’ve broken the rules. You have to be bitten to death.”

“And I’m not leaving without kicking his ass to hell!” Gokudera yelled back.

“I’d really like to see this herbivore try,” Hibari said, grinning.

“You’re going to eat those words, pretty boy,” Gokudera snapped.

“Oh? Are you asking me out?” Hibari asked.

“Wha- no! Dumbass!”

“I don’t date weaklings like you.”

“Can’t you two stop it?” Tsuna sighed, his voice overpowered by Gokudera’s embarrassed shouting. Gokudera began throwing bombs again, and Hibari knocked them back his way. Tsuna dodged back and forth, caught in the crossfire.

“If you hit the tenth, you’re going to regret it!” Gokudera yelled, as dozens of bombs exploded behind him, destroying the blackboard.

“You’re the one throwing things around,” Hibari said.”Maybe you should be more careful.”

“I wouldn’t have to throw things if you weren’t threatening us!”

“You’re both being ridiculous!” Tsuna cried. “Just stop it and let’s go ho-”

Hibari and Gokudera glanced at him. Why had he stopped talking? 

“Tenth?” Gokudera asked, reaching a hand out to him. “You okay?”

A trail of blood trickled down Tsuna’s forehead. “Tenth!” Gokudera yelled, diving forward to catch him as Tsuna’s legs buckled and he went down. “Who-?!”

There was a sharp noise from outside and Gokudera stopped short. Hibari raised an eyebrow. The Vongola decimo collapsed, and Gokudera went down with him, blood leaking from his forehead.

Hibari, mildly concerned, turned to look at the window- cracked where the bullets had shot through- and jerked his tonfa up to block the next shot. He blocked two more bullets- and then the fourth one came too fast, striking him in the center of his forehead. His eyes rolled back and the ceiling tipped up over him, dumping him on the floor.

None of the three boys moved. They were, to any outsider looking in, dead.

Tsuna groaned, eyes squeezed shut. He was chilly- but could feel the sun beating on him, and the cool, hard ground beneath him. A breeze blew over him, hair tickling his face, and he tried to roll over, reaching for a blanket or something to curl up with.

“Tenth!” Gokudera cried, dropping to his knees beside him and shaking his shoulder. “Are you okay? Are you alive? Can you move? Do you need a doctor? I’ll find one! Stay here!”

“Gokudera-kun, relax,” Tsuna sighed, reluctantly opening his eyes. He squinted in the bright morning light. “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? Don’t push yourself…” Gokudera helped him sit up.

“Where are we?”

“I don’t know,” Gokudera admitted. “Some kind of field.”

“Is Hibari-san..?”

“That guy’s over there.”

Tsuna glanced over. Hibari lay some feet away in the grass, half-covered in resting birds.

“What happened? I remember being at school, and then… something…”

“We were shot,” Gokudera said. “I don’t know if this is the afterlife, or-”

“No,” Tsuna said, staring horrified behind him. “It’s not.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s not,” Tsuna said, pointing.

Coming up over the horizon, in huge, backwards, block letters, was a title.

“What the hell is that,” Gokudera asked softly.

NAMIMORI VALE

“This can’t be happening,” Tsuna said, “there’s no way it’s possible that we…”

“Are we… inside a game?” Gokudera asked, both of them staring off at the huge letters floating up into the sky.

Suddenly, Tsuna remembered something that had happened the night before, with Reborn…

“Tsuna,” Reborn said, waving a pudgy child hand in front of his face. Tsuna blinked, coming out of his gaming haze, and looked over at the kid hitman. “You’ve been playing that thing all day and night, you know.”

“It’s a really good game,” Tsuna said, a bit meekly. Was it really nighttime already? How embarrassing! He’s just- he’d really gotten caught up in the game, and it was so fun, and every time he went to sleep and saved, he’d pop outside to just look at his crops before stopping- but then he’d harvest and water and plow and soon he’d be halfway into a new day with no way of saving until night!

So yeah, of course he’d spent the whole day on it. So what?

“You’ve barely studied at all,” Reborn said, a glint in his eye. “You’re going to fail your test tomorrow.”

“Test- wha- there’s no test tomorrow, Reborn!”

Reborn smiled, looking away, black eyes hidden by the shadow of his fedora. “There might be.”

“What are you talking about? I haven’t studied at all!” Tsuna cried.

“You know, Gianini has been developing a new bullet for me,” Reborn said.

“Alright, alright! I’ll study right now- just don’t  _ shoot  _ me!”

“Reborn,” Tsuna said softly.

“Reborn-san?”

“He shot us! He- he put us in here! This is the test!”

“You’re being too loud,” Hibari groaned, sitting up slowly. Birds flew off in every direction, away from the movement. “What are you yelling about?”

“Reborn trapped us in a game!” Tsuna cried, pulling at his hair. “He really did it! How are we supposed to get out of here?! I don’t want to be in here! Reborn! Let me out!”

“It’ll be okay tenth!” Gokudera said. “If this is a game, he probably just wants us to beat it to get out, right?” He looked over at Hibari. “Right?”

Hibari shrugged, looking around. He froze suddenly, patting his sides.

“My tonfa,” he said simply. 

Gokudera’s eyes widened, and he fumbled, feeling around under his shirt.

“My dynamite are missing! Tenth, do you have your-”

“They’re gone,” Tsuna sighed. “He put us in here without our weapons…”

“Why would he do that?” Gokudera asked, bewildered. “If we encounter something dangerous…”

“I think the most dangerous thing in this kind of game is the flow of time,” Tsuna sighed. “It takes hundreds of hours of gameplay to beat Midori Vale, you know- if Namimori Vale is anything like that-”

“GREETINGS,”  a voice called behind them. Tsuna froze. He already knew who it was.

“Oh, good, someone else is here,” Gokudera said. 

“It’s him,” Tsuna whispered, turning around slowly.

“SO YOU’VE FINALLY ARRIVED. THE WHOLE TOWN HAS BEEN WAITING TO MEET YOU,”  Reborn said. Or rather- Reborn with a bushy mustache said.

“Can you tell us where we are, sir?” Gokudera called, addressing him politely.

“Reborn, let us go home!” Tsuna whined.

“I’M MAYOR REBO,”  Reborn said.  “I KNEW YOUR AUNT WELL! IF YOU NEED ANYTHING, YOU SHOULD COME TALK TO ME, OKAY?”

“I’m talking to you now! Just let us leave, Reborn!”

“The baby?” Hibari asked, still at a distance.

“OH, BY THE WAY…”  The kid hitman smiled, black eyes gleaming. “I’LL GIVE YOU A FEW TOOLS TO GET STARTED ON YOUR FARM, OKAY? IT WOULDN’T DO FOR YOU TO PLOW THE FIELDS WITH YOUR BARE HANDS! *laugh*”

“He said “laugh” out loud,” Tsuna said, heart sinking. It wasn’t Reborn- no, it was Reborn, but not the real Reborn. Just a program in a game.

“YOUR HOUSE IS OVER THERE, Tsuna,”  Mayor Rebo said.  “WHEN YOU GET TIRED, YOU SHOULD SLEEP IN THERE. IF YOU WORK TOO HARD WITHOUT SLEEPING, YOU COULD FAINT AND LOSE THE ITEMS IN YOUR INVENTORY.”

Mayor Rebo slung three tools their way- a scythe, a pickaxe, and a hoe. Gokudera caught the scythe. The hoe hit Tsuna in the face and he yelped. Hibari didn’t move, and the pickaxe fell into the grass.

“MY HOUSE IS IN THE MIDDLE OF TOWN, NEAR CITY HALL. COME FIND ME WHEN YOU’VE PLANTED 50 CROPS,”  Mayor Rebo said. He grinned, eyes still shining.  “IF YOU WANT TO GO HOME, Tsuna, YOU SHOULD HURRY UP AND BEAT THE GAME.”  He then disappeared into the woods.

“That no-good Reborn,” Tsuna grumbled, rubbing his face as he bent over to pick up the hoe.

“At least Mayor Rebo gave us some tools to use,” Gokudera said, swinging the scythe gently to get a feel for it. “Hey, Hibari-!”

The prefect had already laid back down in the grass, snoozing quietly.

“Get up, you bastard!” Gokudera cried, storming over to him with the scythe. “We have to beat this game to go home, got it?”

“Do it yourself,” Hibari yawned.

“Gokudera-kun, don’t bother him,” Tsuna called. “We can do it ourselves.”

“Tenth, are you sure?”

“I’ve played twelve seasons of Midori Vale by myself. Once you get the hang of it, it’s not hard.” He prodded the ground with the hoe. “If we just focus and work hard, we’ll get through it.”

Gokudera considered. “I guess. But he should still get up and help!”

Hibari rolled over, turning his back on them.

Gokudera and Tsuna headed towards the house Rebo had pointed them to. Gokudera swung his scythe as they went, clearing tall, green grasses, flowers, and small shrubberies. As they neared the little cottage, Tsuna plotted out an area for their first garden, and Gokudera ran about with the scythe, slashing down the grasses and leaving plant matter in his wake. Tsuna followed, gathering up the fallen plants into his pack, and dragging the hoe through the ground to plow.

It was harder than pushing a button. His hands, his back, his legs began to ache. Sweat dripped into his eyes, even in the cool breeze. By the time he had plowed a row into the hard ground, he was shaking, and his hands burned.

“Are you okay, tenth?” Gokudera asked, returning with a big bundle of plant matter. “Do you wanna switch?”

“No, it’s okay!” Tsuna laughed. “It’s just harder than I thought it’d be.”

“Are you sure? I can do this part-”

“No, no, it’s fine! I just need a minute.”

“I insist, let me help!” Gokudra pried the hoe from his hands, smiling brightly, and set to work on the rest of the cleared area. Tsuna sighed, sitting down to pick through the plant matter for loose seeds to plant.

The sun rose high in the sky as they worked. They planted the seeds together, and Tsuna found a watering can near the house which they used to water the soil. When they’d finished, they walked together to the house and sat down on the edge of the porch, tired, dirty, and sore.

“So how long do we have to play this game to win it?” Gokudera asked, wiping the sweat from his brow and leaving a track of dirt in its place. Tsuna frowned.

“Well… In Midori Vale, you’re supposed to become successful and get married, and save the town from destruction. There are also a lot of side quests to complete, and collections and stuff. You can kinda… play for as long as you want.”

“Oh,” Gokudera said. “So it’s not like we can just fight a boss and…”

“Nope,” Tsuna sighed.

“Not even Mayor Rebo?”

“Something tells me we couldn’t hurt him if we tried.”

“I guess we should go to sleep,” Gokudera said, standing and holding out a hand to help Tsuna up. Tsuna took it, wincing at the painful new calluses on his palms. Gokudera opened the door for him, and they entered the cottage to clean up and sleep-

“Get out of the tenth’s bed, idiot!” Gokudera cried, and Hibari’s eyes flew open. Tsuna shrunk back under his piercing, tired gaze.

“This is my bed,” Hibari said calmly. “I got to it first, so it’s mine.”

“Tenth is the main character, idiot! That means it’s his bed, and we sleep on the floor!”

“I didn’t agree to that, and I won’t now. Goodnight,” Hibari said, rolling over.

“Bastard! I’m going to kick your ass!” Gokudera yelled, grabbing Hibari by the back of his clothes and dragging him off the bed. Hibari drove an elbow into his gut on the way down and hit the floor, hard. Gokudera doubled over, and they rolled around on the floor of the small cottage, punching and kicking at each other.

Tsuna sighed. “I’m going to bed,” he announced, stepping around the two of them and laying down on the rumpled sheets.

“Goodnight, tenth!” Gokudera called, then yelped as Hibari dug his teeth into his shoulder. 

Somehow, despite all their noise, Tsuna slept.


	2. Chapter 2

Day two of spring, year one.

Tsuna awoke with a sore back, throbbing hands, and the light of the heavens shining straight into his eyes.

He groaned, rolling over and squeezing his eyes shut- and rolled straight into Hibari, still asleep.

“Sorry, tenth,” Gokudera yawned, sitting up on the floor. “I couldn’t beat him.”

“It’s okay,” Tsuna yawned, rolling the other way- back into the glaring morning light- and then resolved to just get out of bed. There was no point to staying in bed and rolling back and forth, between a light and a dangerous place.

“Should we get started?” Gokudera asked, leaping to his feet and out of Tsuna’s way. Tsuna yawned and shrugged.

“I guess we should at least water what we planted yesterday.”

They left the cottage, and Tsuna picked up the watering can on the porch to douse the planted seeds. Gokudera followed, flipping open a pocket notebook.

“While you were sleeping, I studied the game a bit. If we’re going to get rich fast and build our farm, these are the best crops to plant this season for maximum profits.”

Tsuna eyed the list. Cauliflower, kale, rhubarb, strawberries? “Where did you get this information?” he asked, eyeing the notepad dubiously.

“I broke into the library and did some reading.”

“Last night?!”

“It wasn’t hard!” Gokudera said, giving him a thumbs up. Tsuna looked away, aghast.

They finished the watering while the sun was still low in the sky. “Should we wake Hibari-san?” Tsuna asked, eyeing the bite marks on Gokudera’s hands and neck. “It’s after eight…”

“I’ll do it, tenth!” Gokudera volunteered, chipper as could be. He hurried up the steps to the cottage and stumbled back down when the door swung open. Hibari stepped out, covering a yawn.

“Oh, you’re up,” Gokudera said. “We’re going to town.”

“Good for you,” Hibari said.

“You’re coming with us.”

“If you want to,” Tsuna added.

Hibari snorted. “Look, herbivores. I don’t know what drugs you used to get me out here, but I have no intention of helping you with your little garden. I’m going home today.”

“There is no “going home today,” asshole,” Gokudera said mockingly. “We’re trapped in a game.”

“I don’t know what that means, and I don’t care.” Hibari stepped off the porch and headed off towards the woods, jacket billowing in the wind behind him. They watched him go.

“He’s really stupid,” Gokudera sighed. “He’s going to get lost out there.”

“Usually if you’re out too late in this kind of game, you’ll faint and wind up back at home,” Tsuna said hopefully. “Besides, the map probably isn’t that big right now. He won’t go far. Especially not without any tools.”

“You’re so smart, tenth!” Gokudera cheered. “That moron’s not going anywhere!”

Tsuna laughed, scratching his cheek idly. “Anyway, we should get to town,” he said. “We need to buy some seeds, right?”

Gokudera nodded, grinning at him.

Town was to the east, they found after a little wandering. The rugged dirt path gave way to prim, green grass, and then laid stone roads. “What’s this town called?” Gokudera asked as they entered it, looking around at the neatly trimmed trees and bushes.

“Namimori,” Tsuna said, pointing out a plaque.

“Did Hibari make this game?” Gokudera asked incredulously. Tsuna snorted. 

They found the general store easily. Gokudera held open the door for Tsuna to enter, and the two of them stepped inside. They made straight for the seeds on the nearby shelf, picking out ten of each of the listed crops to start out with.

“This should get us through the first week or two,” Tsuna said as they carried the seed packets and some gardening gloves up to the counter. The shopkeeper smiled at them. At least he didn’t look like Reborn.

“That’ll be 3,000 gold,” the shopkeeper said cheerfully. Tsuna reached into his pocket and blanched.

“What’s wrong?” Gokudera asked.

“Gokudera-kun, can you, ah… check your pockets?”

Gokudera patted his pockets, then reached inside to double check. “What are we looking for?”

“Well, usually in games like this, you get a little bit of money to start out with, but…”

“You don’t have any gold,” the shopkeeper finished for him.

“No…”

The shopkeeper gathered up the seeds and gloves and pulled them across the counter towards himself. “I’m sorry, I’ll have to ask you to leave.”

“What!” Gokudera cried. “Look, we’re just trying to start a farm here, we need the seeds!”

“We can pay you back later,” Tsuna said meekly.

“I’m sorry, I’ll have to ask you to leave.”

“Bastard, just give us the seeds! We’ll pay you back!”

“I’m sorry, I’ll have to ask you to leave.”

“He’s on a script,” Tsuna sighed, turning away from the counter. “Let’s just go back. We can sell the crops we’re growing from those seeds we found later, and-”

“You can have the seeds,” a sweet feminine voice called from behind the counter. Tsuna and Gokudera spun around.

“Yuni!” Tsuna cried. “It’s you!”

“Hi, Tsuna-kun, Gokudera-kun. I hope you’re having fun in your game.”

“We’re not!” Gokudera wailed.

“Uncle Reborn says it’s really important for you to finish it, so I can’t release you from it yet, but I can help you out here.” She touched the shopkeeper’s arm and his very image quivered. There was a long pause before the shopkeeper spoke.

“Please take these seeds as a gift from Namimori town!” he said happily, pushing them back across the counter. “We can’t wait to see what you do on that farm.”

“Thank you so much, Yuni,” Tsuna said, as Gokudera gathered up the freebies. “This is going to help a lot.”

“I’m happy to help,” Yuni said, and then her image wavered and glitched, and she was gone.

They hurried back to the farm with their essentially stolen goods, and set to work cutting grass, tilling the earth, and sowing the seeds. The day passed like that, morning into afternoon, afternoon into evening, and by the time they finished watering the crops, it was night. Tsuna’s hands and back were sore again, but the gloves had helped a little bit.

“Are you hungry?” Tsuna asked, holding a hand to his stomach.

“Starving,” Gokudera admitted. After two days of hard work, they both were.

“Maybe we can find something to eat around here,” Tsuna murmured. He glanced skywards. The light had dimmed considerably; it was almost night now, and they were both tired from working so hard. 

“Let’s go look for some food,” Tsuna decided. “Maybe there are some wild vegetables nearby.”

They headed south, rather than back towards town. Gokudera sliced down the shrubs in their way, but quickly began to lag behind, exhausted. Tsuna took up the scythe from him to continue the work. “Do you think we’ll find Hibari-san out here?” Tsuna panted, scythe hanging from his loose hands, arms limp. Gokudera stumbled closer.

“I doubt it. That guy’s probably miles away by now.”

“I hope he’s okay.”

“Don’t worry over him, tenth.”

Tsuna glanced back at the direction they’d come from and groaned. They’d come so far, he couldn’t see the cottage between all the trees and the falling darkness. “I guess we should head back,” he sighed. “It’s not like we’ll die of hunger or anything, right?”

“If Reborn-san set this game up, there’s a chance…”

“We might be in real danger,” Tsuna groaned, falling to the ground.

“Tenth, don’t worry. I’ll find you something to eat,” Gokudera promised. “Just give me five minutes.”

Filled with new energy and the will to make his boss happy, Gokudera jogged off into the distance. Tsuna watched him go at first, then turned to look back at the woods. Where was Hibari now? There was no way he had gotten out of the game. Hell, with as dense as the woods and undergrowth were around here, it was possible he hadn’t made it out of the woods yet. 

“Can we eat this?” Gokudera asked, returning with a big, filthy root. Tsuna took it from him, broke off a piece, and sniffed it delicately.

“Eugh,” he said, holding it away from himself.

“That bad?”

“I think it’s wild horseradish,” Tsuna said, eyes watering a little.

“So we can eat it!”

Tsuna considered. He really didn’t want to, but he was starving, and at this rate they wouldn’t make it back to the cottage. “If we have to,” he sighed.

They sat together in the grass and shared the root, noses and eyes running. Still, it filled their bellies, and by the time the big root was gone, Tsuna wished there had been more.

“We should get back,” Gokudera said, standing and dusting off his pants. “It’s really late.”

“Yeah,” Tsuna sighed. “Let’s go.”

They made their way back in the dark, stumbling over roots and rocks, dragging the scythe behind them. At the cottage, they crawled straight into bed and went right to sleep.

Day three of spring, year one.

“He’s still not back,” Gokudera murmured, staring off into the distance. Tsuna looked over his shoulder at him, straightening up from watering the crops.

“Who?”

“Hibari. He still hasn’t come back.”

“Oh… Yeah, he hasn’t…” Tsuna gazed off in the same direction. “Do you think he’s alright?”

“He’s tough. He’s probably fine,” Gokudera said, taking the watering can to do the last row. “I bet he broke through the edge of the map and walked right out of the game.”

Tsuna laughed. “That kinda sounds like him,” he said, crouching to examine the growing plants. They rose tiny and green and strong out of the wet earth, reaching towards the sun.

“There’s not much we can do while they grow, is there?” Gokudera asked after a few minutes. Tsuna shook his head.

“Once they’re fully grown, we can harvest them to eat and sell, but until then…”

“What should we do, then?” Gokudera looked to his boss for a direction to take.

“We could... explore the area,” Tsuna said. “It’s still early.”

“Of course!” Gokudera exclaimed. “Tenth, you’re so smart. You really know everything about this kind of game!”

“You don’t have to praise me that much,” Tsuna said, embarrassed.

They headed west, taking the scythe and the pickaxe with them. Tsuna sliced down any shrubs that got in their way, and Gokudera busted open small boulders in their path, leaving a trail of destruction and building materials behind them.

Soon they reached the edge of the forest. “We don’t have an axe,” Tsuna said, trepidation obvious in his voice. If they got stuck, they might not be able to make a path back out.

“It’ll be okay!” Gokudera said. “If we get lost, I’ll find our way back home!”

He sounded so sure of himself. “Okay,” Tsuna said. “Let’s go.”

Gokudera took the lead this time. He lead Tsuna through the forest, winding around fallen trees and through the dense woods. They rested in tiny clearings, surrounded by great oaks. Their trek took them into the early afternoon, sun rising over the forest and creating pins of light through the leaves.

After a couple of hours, they popped out of the other side of the woods. Tsuna shielded his eyes from the sudden bright light of day. “There’s a trail over there,” he said, gesturing towards it with his other hand. “There must be something up there.”

“Should we go?” Gokudera asked.

Tsuna nodded. “There might be something important up there.”

Stepping over lost branches and patches of tall grass, they headed up the slope together. At the top was a wide, vast plateau of grass, and beyond that, a road.

And midway to the road, sitting on a rock with his back to them, was Hibari.

“Hibari-san!” Tsuna cried, running forward. “You’re here!”

“Well damn,” Gokudera said, jogging after him.

Hibari didn’t look up. His head was bowed, as if he were exhausted. Tsuna reached him first, and bent over to look at him. “Are you okay, Hibari-san?”

Hibari didn’t answer. “What’s his problem?” Gokudera asked.

“Hibari-san, you found a road! This probably goes to another part of town we haven’t discovered yet, so-”

“It doesn’t go anywhere,” Hibari said softly.

“Eh?” Tsuna blinked.

“It doesn’t lead anywhere. I tried to follow it, but it doesn’t.”

“Well, if we haven’t unlocked that part of town yet-”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“Idiot,” Gokudera spat. “Haven’t you been paying any attention?”

“No.”

“Hibari-san, we’re trapped in a game,” Tsuna explained. “This road can’t take you back to the Namimori we know. It can only take us to another part of the game-”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“It’s a video game!” Gokudera exclaimed. “Haven’t you ever played a game before?”

“No.”

“Wha- seriously? Not even one?” Gokudera stared at him, then started to laugh, head tipped back. Hibari moved to hit him, but he clearly didn’t have the energy for it.

“Reborn trapped us in here,” Tsuna continued, “so we probably have to play the game to get anywhere. If we get far enough, he’ll probably let us out.” Hopefully! Of course, there was no guarantee; Reborn might just leave them in the game forever. Tsuna didn’t want to think about that.

With some coaxing, he and Gokudera got Hibari back on his feet, and slung his arms over their shoulders to help him back towards the farm. It was tiring, hobbling together back through the forest. Hibari was too exhausted from travelling all night on the road to nowhere to be much help.

When they finally broke through the edge of the trees, the sun was starting to set. The three of them hurried back towards the farm, and the little house, stomachs rumbling and feet aching. Gokudera stopped to dig up another horseradish root, which he carried tucked under his arm the rest of the way to the farmhouse.

Hibari pulled away when they reached the porch and collapsed against it, visibly exhausted. Gokudera held up the horseradish root wordlessly, but Tsuna shook his head. He was too tired from their journey to even think about eating one of those again. 

The three of them made their way into the house. Hibari crawled into the bed and curled up in the middle. Tsuna, too tired to fight, laid down on the floor. Gokudera opened his mouth as if to argue, but sighed, shook his head, and laid down beside him.

The sun sank into the mountains and cast Namimori Vale into darkness. The three boys slept through the night.


End file.
